Senator Cash(Minister Assisting the Prime Minister for the Public Service, Minister for Employment and Minister for Women)

I seek leave to have the second reading speeches incorporated in Hansard.

Leave granted.

The speeches read as follows-

AMENDING ACTS 1990 TO 1999 REPEAL BILL 2015

The Amending Acts 1990 to 1999 Repeal Bill 2015 is part of the Government's 2015 Spring Repeal Day package.

This Bill continues the Government's efforts to streamline the statute book by removing 877 amending or repealing Acts enacted between 1990 and 1999. This is the fourth in a series of Amending Acts Repeal Bills introduced by the Government. Together, these four Repeal Bills will repeal over 3,500 amending Acts made between 1901 and 1999.

The Bill repeals each Act mentioned in its Schedule. The repeal of these Acts will not alter existing arrangements or make any substantive change to the law. They are no longer required as the amendments and repeals that they provide for have already occurred.

At present, the Acts proposed to be repealed by this Bill are part of current law. Examined out of context, it may not be clear whether they have continuing effect beyond the amendments that they made.

Their repeal will make the statute book easier and more efficient to use.

If an application, saving or transitional provision is included in one of these Acts, any ongoing operation of the provision will be preserved. The Acts do not contain any other substantive provisions with ongoing effect.

People with a specific interest in the text of these spent Acts will still be able to access them on ComLaw, but they will be clearly marked as "Repealed".

[ADDITIONAL TEXT IF REQUIRED: Some Acts being repealed by this Bill amended principal Acts which have already been repealed, such as the Social Security Act 1947 and the Australian Protective Service Act 1987. Others were intended to amend a principal Act which never came into force, such as the Legislative Instruments Act 1995.

Other Acts being repealed by this Bill amended principal Acts that are still in force, in some cases these principal Acts were amended multiple times over the course of the decade. As the amendments have been incorporated into the Principal Act, these amending Acts have no more work to do and their repeal will remove unnecessary and potentially confusing material from the statute book.]

STATUTE LAW REVISION BILL (NO. 3) 2015

The Statute Law Revision Bill (No. 3) 2015 is part of the Government's 2015 Spring Repeal Day package.

The Bill is part of ongoing efforts to repeal spent or redundant legislation and correct minor errors in Commonwealth laws. The Bill improves the clarity and accuracy of the Acts it amends without making substantive changes to the law. These many small changes contribute to reducing the burden of regulatory compliance for individuals, community organisations and businesses.

Correcting these legislative provisions helps to make the law easier to understand and use.

Schedule 3 to the Bill amends the Child Support (Registration and Collection) Act 1988, continuing the work of the previous Statute Law Revision Bill. The amendment makes clear that the Crown in right of the Australian Capital Territory and the Northern Territory is bound by the Act in question. It also modernises the drafting of the associated provision about the Crown's liability to be prosecuted for an offence.

This change clarifies the intended operation of Commonwealth legislation.

Schedule 4 to the Bill modernises language used in offence provisions, while Schedule 5 updates indexation provisions to match the current terminology preferences of the Australian Bureau of Statistics.

Schedule 6 of the Bill repeals spent or obsolete provisions. For example, a provision of the Do Not Call Register Act 2006 required a review to be conducted and the resulting report to be tabled in Parliament. The review concluded in May 2010 and the report was tabled in September 2010. The provision is therefore redundant and can be repealed.

These ongoing corrections and improvements to legislation are important to ensure that the Commonwealth statute book remains up to date, accurate and user-friendly.

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